It has been nearly 50 years since the winds of a "new Pentecost" swept over the Church at the Second Vatican Council. This important moment in history is studied in many theology classes. As part of a lesson on the changes in the Church at that time, invite a person who was an adult at the time of Vatican II and who remains active in the same parish to speak to your class about his or her remembrances of the Council and the changes it brought to parish life. Provide this set of instructions to your speaker/guest. Introductions
Briefly introduce yourself. Tell the name of the parish you belong to and how long you have been a member of the parish.
Share an example or anecdote that expresses how you feel about being a member of this parish.
Issues and Questions
The first part of this segment will be a discussion of the issues below in an open forum with high school age students.
How was your parish informed about the changes in the liturgy after Vatican II? How did the parish react on the whole?
Tell something of the changes and development of the parish physical plant over the years.
Provide a physical description of the church interior prior to Vatican II.
How was the role of the priest different prior to Vatican II?
How are some of the following ministries different now from before: school teacher, CCD teacher, Eucharistic minister, lector, parish council member, music minister, etc.
Describe the music at pre-Vatican II liturgies?
How did people dress when they came to Mass?
Compare your feelings for the Latin Mass with the Mass in the vernacular.
The second part of the presentation will be devoted to answering other questions the students may have related to developments and changes in parish life over the years. Allow a full class period for the presentation and questions.
Dr. Daniel Smith-Christopher will be the keynote speaker at the fifth annual Teacher Enrichment Day on October 10 at the University of Notre Dame, sponsored by Ave Maria Press. Dr. Smith-Christopher is a Professor at Loyola Marymount University specializing in the Hebrew scriptures. Below he offers some advice on reading the Old Testament.
Reading the Old Testament is not like reading any ordinary book. Yes, we need to read the words and sentences. But more than a literal reading of the text, we need to read it with faith. This means we reflect on the underlying message of the text: the message of truth God is wishing to communicate to us. Here are some main themes found in the Bible. Keep these in mind as you study particular stories or events in the Old Testament.
· God created a good world. · God has blessed human life. · Humanity has a tendency to sin. · God is a God of mercy. · God keeps promises. · The covenant binds God to Israel. · The Law expresses Israel’s bond to God. · Worship is praise and thanksgiving. · Religious life is life in community. · God directs all of human history. As the introduction to the New American Bible explains, these themes can be applied to our own lives today in the following ways: · All things in our life must flow from faith. · Our prayer and our daily life must be one. · We must respect God’s holiness. · We must imitate God’s holiness. · Holiness must be translated into compassion. · Life is a journey that requires trust in God. · We are people of the land. (We must take the environment seriously.) · Faith is a family affair.
· Prayer must fill our lives. For more information on the Teacher Enrichment Conference and to register, please contact Kerry Circosta.
Read the quotes and share some information about the famous Catholics listed below. Then read the moral dilemma to the students and ask them to rate how strongly they would respond based on either end of the spectrum.
"I am the King's good servant, but God's first."
—St. Thomas More
Your public school allows a moment of silence for daily prayer or meditation. A popular teacher says that this practice violates laws separating church and state and continues to lecture during this time. Most of your friends either agree with his opinion or don't think the matter is worth debating. Would you:
Protest against the teacher—————————————————————Conform with the Teacher
"How can we sacrifice our principles or remain silent in the face of this gigantic error?"
—Dorothy Day
Your parents tell you that you must work to pay for a good part of your college tuition. A telemarketing firm offers you a high-paying job selling magazine subscriptions. At least four of the magazines you would be expected to sell would be classified as pornographic. Would you:
Not accept the job——————————————————————————————Accept the Job
"For Jesus Christ, I am prepared to suffer still more."
—St. Maximillian Kolbe
The campus of a rival school has been vandalized in the week before your school faces them in a big game. Your school's name and colors are graffitied around the other campus. Personally, you didn't have anything to do with the vandalism. Would you:
Help clean up——————————————————————————————Let Others Worry About It
"I heard the call to give up all and to follow him into the slums and to serve among the poorest of the poor."
—Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Your parents want you to choose a college major that leads to a high-paying job. You, however, have an interest in teaching an would love to pursue it in school. You realize that you could earn much more money as a doctor or lawyer than as a teacher. Would you:
Follow your dream——————————————————————————————Listen to Your Parents
If you’ve worked with teenagers or spent any significant time with them at all, then you know that teens do pray. You also know that their prayer is genuine and from the heart. You have likely witnessed all the main forms of prayer done well and done spontaneously by teens. Consider the examples that follow:
Petition. It was one of those big rivalry games, the local public school versus the Catholic school on Friday night football. When a player from the public school team was felled by an injury that first appeared serious, the players on the sidelines from the Catholic school team suddenly dropped to their knees in prayer. What a witness to the friends and neighbors on the other side of the field.Intercession. A teen preparing for Confirmation was asked if she ever prayed: “Yes, I do,” she said. “I also talk to my grandmother a lot. She died last year.”Praise. If you’ve been to a youth rally, diocesan youth day, or some school Masses, you’ve likely experienced loud music, singing, swaying, and praying.Thanksgiving. The passenger van a youth minister was driving broke down outside of Tijuana, Mexico on the way back home to L.A. after visiting some children at an orphanage. The youth minister walked with another teen north to the city to get some help. When they returned, an adult co-worker and the rest of the teens were praying the rosary. When the youth minister got inside the van, one boy, said, “Thank you, Jesus!”Adoration. Ask a teen, “Where do you find God?” and a great many will tell you: “I find God in nature.” Or, “I find God in creation.”Blessing. This is the movement of Christian prayer. We bless God for having blessed us. You have probably been awed by the way the teens bless each other, hugging their friends on greeting or departing. In this way they truly bless the God who is present in all.Teens do pray. A task for teachers and catechists is to help teens name what they already are doing as prayer. Another is to provide opportunities for teens to feel comfortable praying together. A third is to encourage teens to increase the time they spend alone with God in prayer.Let’s look at the third task—probably the most difficult one—first. While true that prayer can happen anywhere—in the car, while exercising, before a stressful test—teens (adults and children, too) should be encouraged to spend some definite, planned time each day with the Lord. When? Suggest a time right before bed. Homework and phone calls to friends are over for the night. Where? The privacy of one’s own room is the best place. But also advise teens to set up a prayer space in their rooms other than their beds: • a comfortable chair with a night stand• an exercise mat• a corner table with a bible and candle. Like any person who goes full throttle during the day, a head resting on a cushiony pillow late at night will induce instant second stage sleep. So, prayer first, then bed.How long? Ten minutes is certainly doable. Tell them that ten minutes is only .69444 percent of their total day. The most difficult question to answer for teens is “how do I pray?” One definition of prayer is “entering into God’s presence.” So, your response should include any suggestions that can contribute to a teen being able to do that. Some ideas: • Review your day. Take some time to find ways that God came to you during the day.• Read a short passage from scripture. St. Augustine once randomly opened the Bible to find how God was speaking to him. This method may work for teens. However, encourage them to also read the pages before and after to get some more sense of how God is speaking to them.• Play a favorite song. What is some good news they hear in the lyrics?• Sit in the absolute silence of your room. Then notice the sounds emanating from the rest of your house (dad’s snoring, brother’s keyboard, mom in the kitchen). Praise God for your family.• Talk to Jesus. Use real words as do in conversations with friends. Then quiet yourself and listen for an answer.• Pray some favorite rote prayers from our Catholic faith. Really pay attention to the words. Ask the teens you teach to share some other ways they can incorporate prayer into their lives. Helping teens to name what they are already doing as prayer is a rather subtle skill that can escape even the most seasoned teacher or catechist. There are several occasions that are harder to recognize than football players on their needs or van-filled teenagers saying Hail Mary’s. One teenage girl shared with her class that she never prayed. She said her prayers had never been answered. This was the same girl whose family was a foster family to two infant sisters, born to a mother addicted to crack. This girl spent many nights rocking those two little babies to sleep. Aren’t experiences like that what prayer is about too?
Related to the video above, conduct a lesson on the meaning of true self-esteem. Say something like:People wear masks to cover up a part of their lives where they feel vulnerable. We have a need to recognize in ourselves, and have others recognize, that we are lovable. The greatest form of true recognition is to be loved and to love. There are constructive ways for this to take place. For example:Draw on support from people who recognize your goodness. These people are most often family members and close friends who love you as much as they love themselves.Replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Try to avoid negative and self-defeating thoughts that begin with "I can't" or "I'm no godd" and restate them in positive terms: "I can draw very well" or "I am good at listening to others and offering my support." Also avoid negative thoughts about others. Accept all people as creations of the same Creator.Concentrate on what's really important. Is it more important to understand the English literature you've read or to get the best grade? Is it more important to be a loyal friend to someone who is not part of the "in" group or to follow a peer leader just so you can belong. Let your actions of being loved and offering love be the criteria for all that you do.Pray.Never forget that in God you have your number-one supporter. God cuts away all the excess of what you do or don't do and love you just the way you are. In order to achieve your full potential you must do as well as you can using all of your gifts. But as a child of God, you have been given the common need to love and to be loved. As St. Paul wrote: "Your every act should be done with love" (1 Cor 16:14).AssignmentComplete the following sentences:
Someday I hope to . . .
I wish I could change . . .
I am trying to improve my character by . . .
People would like me better if . . .
When I don't get my way I . . .
I am happiest when . . .
I am proud of __ because . . .
When people tease me, I . . .
In his engaging and and reflective article in the current America magazine, "God and the Teenage Mind," Brad Rothrock, a theology teacher, at St. Mary's High School in Lynn, Massachusetts reminds us to gauge what teens know and what they don't know and why it never hurts to begin any course with a discussion that starts with "Who is God?"
Chapter 1 of the text Catholic Essentials does begin with a reminder that we humans are made with a basic desire for God. Prior to a discussion of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the text lays out nine attributes named by St. Thomas Aquinas that tell us about God's nature:
1. God is eternal. He has no beginning and no end. Or, to put it another way, God always was, always is, and always will be.
2. God is unique. God is the fullness of being and perfection. God is the designer of a one and only world. Even the people he creates are one of a kind.
3. God is infinite and omnipotent. There are no limits to God. Omnipotence is a word that refers to God’s supreme power and authority over all of creation.
4. God is omnipresent. This reminds us of a lesson we learned early in life: God sees everything. God has no space limitations. He is everywhere. You can never be away from God.
5. God contains all things. All of creation is under God’s care and jurisdiction.
6. God is immutable. God does not evolve. God does not change. God is the same God now as he always has been and always will be.
7. God is pure spirit. Though God has been described with human attributes (e.g., a wise old man with a long beard), God is not a material creation. God’s image cannot be made. God is a pure spirit who cannot be divided into parts. God is simple but complex.
8. God is alive. We believe in a living God, a God who acts in the lives of people. Most concretely, he came to this world in the incarnate form of Jesus Christ.
9. God is holy. God is pure goodness. God is pure love.
The school year has opened and on Saturday, September 5 expectations are optimistically high for the college football season in many places, including the University of Notre Dame. Ready for success on the field and in the classroom (for you and your students)? You may wish to share some words of encouragement from Lou Holtz, coach of the 1988 National Champion Fighting Irish from his book A Teen's Game Plan for Life.
It's great to have big dreams. But the way to make your dreams come true is through a series of smaller daily choices. This is where the WIN formula can help.You want to graduate tops in your class, or be an All-American? then ask yourself twenty-five times a day, "What's important now?"You wake up in the morning—"What's important now?" Get out of bed.You're out of bed—"What's important now?" Eat breakfast. You need your strength."What's important now?" Go to class."What's important now?" Sit in the front row. Be prepared.It's time to practice. "What's important now?" Use the weight room. It's there to help you get stronger. You don't use it because someone's looking, but because you've got to get stronger.When you're out Saturday night and there's opportunities for alcohol, or sex, or drugs? "What's important now?" If your dream is to be outstanding in whatever field you've chosen, then "what's important now" is to avoid these situations.
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